Graduating from Purchase College Conservatory in 2010 and 2011, Melissa received a Bachelors of Music and a Performers Certificate under the tutelage of Julia Lichten.  

​

In 2006, she attended Shenandoah University where she was a winner of the esteemed Bach-Handel Competition. Later that same year, she performed at the Castleton Theater in an original theater production, Wayfarers, with Dietlinde Maazel, actress and wife of former NY Philharmonic Maestro, Lorin Maazel.   In 2008, she was featured on the McGraw-Hill Young Artists Showcase and the following year was awarded the Presidential Scholar Award from Purchase College.  While at Purchase, Melissa also played for the premier of Lee Hoiby's opera, The Tempest, at Symphony Space in New York City, and later went on to record the work with Albany Records.  In 2010, she was invited to tour as a soloist with the Mary Green Singers on their 25th Anniversary tour to Germany and the Czech Republic.